Saturday, September 30, 2017

Compression

Compression is the first in a series of new mixed media paintings. This new series incorporates many of the same visual elements from earlier work but I am now seeking to arrange them in a layered, compressed manner:

'Compression' Mixed Media on Aluminum, 2017 20W x 20H inches

Compare the composition to an earlier painting where several images were arranged together and displayed as in a vitrine:

'Departures' Mixed Media on Aluminum, 2017 30W x 20H inches

By stacking and compressing images that use different modes of representation, I am now further enhancing the idea of impermanence. I keep the eye and the mind moving. You can see the clouds, you can imagine the surface of the water reflecting the pattern that spans the image. As you move back or to the side you can see the other water surface rendered in the vertical line elements. You can see all these things, but not at the same time.

By enlarging the various modes of representation, the dot-screens, the pixels and the partial painted surfaces, I emphasize the artifice of the images. You become a aware that 'image' is an illusion. You understand that seeing is not a objective recording of a fixed reality. Seeing is active. In fact you choose and construct the way you perceive reality.